Congress Eyes Daytime Ban on Ads for Viagra et al
U.S. Rep. Jim Moran has introduced a bill that would ban ED ads on TV between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m, according to Ad Age.
The ban would obviously affect Pfizer, Bayer and Eli Lilly, who all market ED drugs, in addition to “diet supplement” marketers with brands such as Enzyte and Extenze.
If you read the comments thread under the Age item, you can see that consumers really dislike watching sports shows with their kids when ED spots come on — it leads to embarrasing questions that parents don’t want to answer:
Everytime I watch a baseball game (or any sporting event) with my daughter I have to deal with this unnecessary issue.
Pfizer — the market leader and the company with the most to lose under the Moran bill — once promised to only advertise Viagra to TV audiences that were 90 percent adult and after 8 p.m. at night, according to Brandweek:
A rep for Pfizer said that as with all of its ED advertising, the new spot will air only during age-appropriate programs with at least 90% adult viewership and after 8 p.m. Spend was not revealed.
The company’s official rules don’t have a time-period ban — they just call for 90 percent adult audiences:
… it will be targeted to avoid audiences that are not age appropriate. For erectile dysfunction ads, this means that all TV ads will be aired during programs that have more than 90 percent adult viewership.
PhRMA’s “guiding principals” for DTC also contain no time limits.
Pfizer gave this statement to CNN:
Consumers need and want readily available, easy-to-understand health information. Advertisements for prescription medicines provide clear information about medical conditions and treatments and motivate consumers to have productive conversations with their physicians. Pfizer is committed to responsible advertising. We are continually looking for ways to improve our advertising.
Our goal in advertising our products is to reach the people who would be most likely to benefit from them. In line with our policies and the policies of the industry, Viagra advertising is aired in shows most likely to be reach men suffering from erectile dysfunction. ED can be a signal for other serious medical issues, including high blood pressure, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Jim Edwards, a former managing editor of Adweek, has covered drug marketing at Brandweek for four years, and is a former Knight-Bagehot fellow at Columbia University's business and journalism schools. Follow him on Twitter or send him an email.
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